Buying Records

@mambacfa “l find classical records are in better shape….”

Be afraid…. Be very afraid!

The debate goes on with the MONEY v BRAINS record collecting, and  CARE v BRUTE FORCE mentality of owners.

Seriously, there has been the snob element that has crept into an innocent hobby, and over the years battle lines drawn between the two camps, CLASSICAL v ROCK lovers.

In the past (from memory and personal experiences) some people prejudged and drew conclusions that classically minded collectors had more money, bought better systems, lived in much cleaner plush environments, and were generally high brow and more intelligent. Rock collectors were considered more working class, lived lower down the property chain, butch and brawny, often down the pub spending the money there, not on equipment, and generally less educated. 

Of course pure nonsense to assume what a class of person would listen too, but those stereotypes above may well indicate why @mambacfa has personally experienced the fact, “classical records are in better shape”

@mylogic That's quite the bit of diatribe and quite the leap from a simple observation to a soliloquy on the presumptions of others (real or imagined.) On the bright side, this reminds me to avoid commenting on this forum. 

I think the classical recordings have typically been in their sleeves a lot longer. Less playing for some reason. Go down to any record store and in the dollar bin  are hundreds of classical records you would swear have never been used. 

 Try that with jazz and pop or rock and its very different. 

Macfamba is correct with no snobbery. 

@mambacfa “That’s quite a bit of diatribe and quite a leap from simple observation…..”

I agree

My introduction contains…... “ In the past (from memory and personal experiences) some people prejudged and drew [their own] conclusions……”

The content of my post was exactly recalling those people’s views, they were not mine. I don’t hold those prejudices myself. Any readers will also need to be open minded and form “their own” conclusions.

Prices for vinyl are insane and continue to go up. 

Of course they continue to go up.. EVERYTHING continues to go up. Been to the grocery store lately? However, the prices are not "insane." 

50 years ago an LP cost around $7-8. In 2025 dollars that is about $42-48.

Most new releases sell for less than $42, so records are actually cheaper today then they were 50 years ago.